Positive Family Connections study

ALT Whilst family members of a child with a developmental disability (such as a learning disability or autism) describe lots of positive experiences, they also describe difficulties, including with their mental health and family relationships. Having a family member with a developmental disability impacts the entire family, and the whole family might benefit from support. A family intervention is one that aims to help the whole family, based on the idea that family members are connected with each other - they are a family system. However, there has been little research into family-level interventions for families of children with developmental disabilities. A second issue is that existing interventions for families of children with developmental disabilities often focus only on reducing negative experiences like mental health problems or stress, and rarely focus on developing positive outcomes like wellbeing and family relationships.

ALT Five people sat in an office in a family therapy session